


Thank God

by getyourfaceoutofmyface



Category: Unter Uns
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, M/M, ringsy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 07:19:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14491716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/getyourfaceoutofmyface/pseuds/getyourfaceoutofmyface
Summary: What happens when Easy never stops Ringo from getting on that train.





	Thank God

It had been over six weeks since Ringo had left Cologne on a train bound out of Easy’s life. No one mentioned Ringo in Easy’s company after that day, not even Tobias. 

There was a fragility to Easy now that Tobias had never seen in his friend but he figured with time he’d would be back to normal but so far Tobias had been wrong, very very wrong. 

Easy went to work at the kiosk, he’d go out with his camera for hours, he hadn’t stepped foot in WG and he avoided the apartment like it housed the plague. He didn’t laugh. He didn’t cry. He just sat there. No one even knew if he was listening half the time when they spoke to him. He just had this far away look in his eye. He spent most of his time in his room, the only companion he seemed to enjoy was Stinker, who seemed to know what Easy needed. Tobias would have believed Easy didn’t even know how to use his voice anymore if he hadn’t heard the low rumbles of his conversations with the dog from the other side of Easy’s bedroom door. 

The only person who had heard from Ringo was Paco. He brought him up once when Easy, who had insisted he wasn’t hungry because apparently he survived on oxygen alone now, went and hid in his room from his roommate and declined dinner. Tobias had had enough and went to WG to get some re-enforcements.

“I don’t know what to do anymore, how do I fix him?”

Eli just looked sad and Saskia looked like she wanted to say something but was biting her lip.

“I heard from Ringo yesterday.”

Tobias whirled around and arched an eyebrow at Paco.

“He’s still my friend Tobias, not to mention your brother.”

Tobias huffed at that, like he needed reminding.

“He’s coming back to town this weekend. I convinced him to meet me for a beer. He sounds almost worse than Easy. It’s like neither of them know how to exist anymore.”

“Ringo deserves it, Easy doesn’t.”

“Enough!”

Everyone turned to look at Saskia, who suddenly had wild eyes and a snarl on her face as she glared at Tobias. 

“You Tobias, more than anyone, should know how this feels for both of them” 

“Me, what does it have to do with me?” 

“Ever since Kay-C left to go be Hauke’s fake fiancée you’ve been just as bad, but it’s almost like Easy and Ringo aren’t allowed to be heartbroken but you are. You don’t get a say in that.” 

Tobias didn’t know how to handle Saskia like this, who was this bossy, annoying woman? 

“It’s different.” 

Saskia couldn’t keep her disgust for Tobias from her voice. 

“It’s love Tobias, it’s different and the same for everybody. If you care for Easy like you say you do you would want him to have whatever makes him happy. If Ringo makes him happy you should be helping him get back to him. You changed, is it so hard to believe Ringo could too?” 

Tobias looked around the room, looking for support from Paco and Elli, and found none. 

“She’s right Tobias, they love each other.” 

Ellie looked at Paco with glowing eyes, Paco just smiled back at her and then turned to Tobias. 

“We should help them Tobias. We stick our noses in anyway, why not use it to help?” 

Tobias couldn’t believe what he was hearing, his friends were insane and he told them so. 

“You’re all crazy. They just need time and they’ll see how much better off they are. Trust me.” 

He stormed out and headed back to his apartment. It was just another relationship, Easy would move on, and Paco was no doubt wrong and Ringo probably already had. 

He made his way inside and headed for Easy’s door. He was about to knock when he heard it. Easy, crying. No not just crying but sobbing, deep shuddering sobs that sent shivers down Tobias’s back, and he could hear Stinker whining, no doubt the dog trying to comfort his friend. Tobias leaned his head against the closed door.

Fuck, he thought, fuck, fuck, FUCK. 

He turned around and headed back to WG, stormed in, slammed the door behind him and looked right at Saskia. 

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do.” 

** 

Ringo didn’t know how Paco had been able to convince him to spend his first night back in Cologne at his old apartment. He should have got a hotel, but six weeks of living on his sister’s couch with no income didn’t mean he had money to throw around. He was only back because Kira had kicked him out anyway. She’d had enough of his wallowing.

She’d been supportive at first, listening to him unload his broken heart, listened to his regrets. She’d understood, she’d been compassionate but firm, hell she’d bought him ice cream, stating that it’s what every broken heart needed. 

But as time wore on and Ringo wasn’t getting over it Kira got more and more frustrated with her brother. 

“This isn’t you Ringo. You fight for what you want or you move on, you can’t stay in this limbo forever. Maybe you need to accept that you’ll never be over Easy, not really, but God brother get your ass off my couch.” 

And so Ringo realized this ache, this emptiness wasn’t going to go away, it was a part of him now. But the rest of him needed a job, and a place to live and to get up every morning, even if the day ahead would be void of any real happiness. It’s what people did, or at least he assumed what people did, he’d never been like most people anyway.

And if he had to look at pictures of him and Easy on his phone before he went to sleep every night, before he could even attempt to sleep, then he would live with it.

And if he had to wake every morning reaching for someone who wasn’t there, and fight back the tears that came up, well then so be it. So when he’d texted Paco he was coming back to town, was going to find another flat share and a new place to work, so that he could avoid his walking heartache at all costs Paco pounced. First he convinced him to meet for a drink. Then a few days later he said Easy was going out of town for a weekend visiting some uncle that Ringo didn’t even know he had. He could stay in his old room, at least for a few nights until he found somewhere else. Before Easy came back.

Clearly a glutton for punishment Ringo agreed, because if he couldn’t have Easy anymore than maybe he could relive the memories where he’d once been allowed to. 

The heaviness multiplied the moment the building came into view. It was worse when he was in the elevator. Even alone his reflex was to reach out to grasp Easy’s hand in the tiny space and he cursed himself when he realized what he’d done. 

He walked into WG and was greeted by hugs from Elli and Saskia and the smile from Paco. 

“We missed you Ringo, nothing has been the same without you.” 

Saskia’s words surprised him, she’d never been overly interested in Ringo before. 

“Go put your stuff in your room man, we’re going to go grab some dinner to bring back. You’re probably tired from the journey, go get settled.”

Paco half smiled at him and they all shuffled out the door. 

Then here he was, standing alone in the apartment like the last six weeks hadn’t happened. Like he had any right to be there. Like he had any right to the memories he’d made with Easy in these walls. He carried his stuff up to his old room but other than placing the bags down in the doorway he couldn’t bring himself to step inside. There were memories and dreams held in that room too raw to face right now, in the light of day. He needed the cover of darkness before he was in the bed where he last held Easy because he knew it was going to hurt.

But he would do it, he had no other choice and he deserved all the pain it would bring him, every damn bit of it.

God he wanted a beer. *** Easy was sitting on the couch looking out the window, Stinker curled on his lap. Tobias was watching his phone intently. He wanted to pretend to be stealth but honestly he could run around the apartment naked and Easy wouldn’t notice. In fact he had.

Then Tobias saw his phone light up and a two word text from Saskia, “Go time.”

“Oh my God Easy, we have to get to Elli and Paco’s!”

Tobias jumped out of his chair and grabbed Easy by the arm.

“What the hell, why?”

“Elli said Paco fell in the shower and he can’t get up and he’s too heavy for her.”

Tobias felt a little bad for the lie but as a group they knew Easy would over come anything if meant helping someone he cared about, they knew only an emergency would get him through the door to WG.

And they were right. Easy pushed himself off the couch, causing Stinker to yip and jump to the floor. Easy was out the door and Tobias was right behind him.

He watched Easy barrel into WG and then stop dead in his tracks.

Tobias looked over Easy’s head, made eye contact with his wide eyed brother who stood motionless in the kitchen, nodded his head and shut the door in his own face.

*** They just stared at each other and Easy didn’t dare move a muscle. He looks the same. How can he look the same? Hadn’t it been a million years since he’d seen that face?

“Easy.”

Ringo says his name with such reverence and sincerity that Easy has to close his eyes. He has to savour the moment, it’s the first time he’s felt whole in weeks.

When he opens them again he half expects to wake up or snap out of the hallucination. But Ringo is still there. Flesh and blood and heat and every piece of Easy is alive and warm again. He forgot what that felt like, to be warm.

*** He looked thinner and his eyes looked hollow and Ringo ached to touch him. To soothe and hold him and banish anything in the world that would dare haunt Easy Winter.

But Ringo knew he was the villain in this story and he’d live with that and pay for that for the rest of his life.

“I’m sorry, you weren’t supposed to be here. I never would have come had I known.”

He turned toward the stairs, he had to get away before he was on his knees, begging Easy for just another chance to love him again, to be the hero of Easy’s story. To reclaim the only good and real thing he’d ever held in his hands.

“I’ll grab my stuff and be gone in 5 minutes.”

“You won’t be gone.”

Easy’s voice caused Ringo to turn and he realized Easy was somehow standing right behind him.

Easy took Ringo’s hand and placed it on his chest, pushing his palm over his heart, into his heart, with a firm hand.

“You’ll always be right here, right where you’ve always been. My heart won’t let me let you go.”

Ringo closed his eyes, as the tears started. Because he could feel the skin of Easy’s hand against his and it was too much and not enough. It would never be enough.

“Look at me Ringo, please.”

Blue eyes looked into hazel, and it was like no time or distance had ever come between them. Like the last six weeks didn’t happen. And Ringo felt the facade he was always barely holding together start to crack

“Tell me Ringo. Tell me you’ve been miserable too. Tell me that the you don’t want me to be happy without you. Tell me you don’t know how to be happy without me.”

An almost bitter laugh escaped Ringo’s lips as he pulled his hand away from Easy’s grasp.

“Miserable?! Miserable would be a God send. I have been in hell without you Easy. A hell I built for myself. To not see you or touch you or laugh with you. To not be able to spend every second showing you how much I love you. And to know that you are out in the world but not in MY world. Knowing that nothing I do will ever be enough and to know that you hate me. To think that some other man could…”

His voice cracked as he choked back a sob. He was trying to stop himself from shaking. The pain he felt, the rage he felt at himself, it was all bubbling up and he couldn’t keep it down. He needed to lock it down because if he fell apart he knew he’d never be able to put himself back together.

**** “Say it again.”

Easy was surprised by the conviction in his own voice. But he knew, he finally knew, he just needed to hear it again.

Ringo looked at him confused. Yet what he saw in Easy’s face, the light and the truth and all that was Easy was radiating at him. The rage ceased and a hope that Ringo only allowed himself to feel late at night when he dreamed started to swell in his chest.

One more time. He would try one more time. Hell he’d tried until his dying day. If Easy needed that Ringo would give it to him, even if it tore his heart to shreds every time Easy walked away. He would always give Easy every piece of himself that he could.

He stepped closer, unsure at first but then placed his hands on Easy’s shoulders. To hold him in place, to anchor himself. He gazed into Easy’s wet eyes and the softness that lived in them.

“I love you Easy. I will do anything if you’d let me…”

But his words were cut off when Easy launched himself into Ringo’s arms and claimed his lips in a kiss that caused his knees to buckle. It tasted of salt and forgiveness and love and Ringo wanted to weep with happiness.

Easy kept leading him back, stroking his chest, his tongue sweeping into his mouth and Ringo was thankful when Easy pushed him down on the couch before his knees gave out.

Then Easy was in his lap, straddling his hips, he cradled Ringo’s head in his hands as he pressed kisses all over his face.

“I love you so much.” Easy whispered as his lips moved over Ringo’s face. “Never leave me again, I can’t breath without you.”

“Easy I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness but…”

Easy cut him off with another kiss. He didn’t want to hear it, didn’t need to hear it. He needed to feel it, he needed Ringo to make him whole again.

“Shhh. Just love me. Let me love you. It’s all I need.”

Ringo pulled back, his head was spinning, his heart was bursting, and he needed to see Easy’s face, because he needed to know he meant it. Ringo needed to know he had Easy back, that he could stay here, that he could finally stay in the only place he’d ever felt like he belonged.

He cupped Easy’s face and gazed into his eyes, because every question Ringo ever had was always answered when he looked into his Easy’s eyes.

They just looked at each other, taking in dimples and cheekbones and making sure nothing had changed. That time hadn’t erased anything. That they were still real.

Then Easy covered Ringo’s hands with his own and a smile seemed to light his eyes. Ringo felt blinded by it and then he knew what Easy was trying to tell him, felt it to the marrow of his bones.

“Thank God.” was the last thing Ringo said before he claimed Easy’s lips again and came home.


End file.
